I just read CNN article on the rise of Social Gospel (again) in America through the activity of workers unions. I would love to hear Diana’s take, from an historical and current standpoint. For eg, could this movement counteract the harm being done by the religious right in any significant way?
HI Diana, please forgive the length of this, but your reflections reminded me that I wrote something awhile back, and so I thought I'd see how it read, some 15 years later!!! Grateful to you and to Richard for being a part of "Claiming the Beatitudes."
From the Intro:
"If we interpret the beatitudes as a set of rules to live by we sever them from their roots in the tradition of the Jewish prophets. Matthew’s community was steeped in Isaiah, and Jesus quotes Isaiah more than any other prophet. Isaiah announced again and again the signs of God’s presence in the world, using language about peace and light and justice and healing and liberation and joy. Each one of the beatitudes echoes Isaiah’s description of the reign of God.
These brief sayings give us a lens through which to see Jesus and the God he proclaimed. Through these words, and through his alternative way in the world, Jesus points to a God who is always doing something new, a God who engages this world with healing mercy, endless compassion, and liberating justice. We see a God who is most concerned about those who have the least. The beatitudes give us not only a way to see God, but a way to see our world, and they give us something concrete to do about what we see, as they call us to participate in God’s kingdom. As St. Augustine said, (and Marcus Borg quotes): “God without us will not; and we without God cannot.”3
The emerging leaders whose stories follow know this; they claim the beatitudes of Jesus not as a description of a future heavenly realm, but as a prescription for vital discipleship now. With them, I believe that the beatitudes were offered to the early church as both encouraging comfort and as a stirring manifesto for a way of life that ran radically counter to the prevailing ethos of the Roman Empire. These words of blessing are as defiant as Mary’s Magnificat and as bold as Jesus’ first sermon at Nazareth. The beatitudes had the power to change lives in the first century, and they hold that same power today, shaping a new generation of leaders and giving them a word of daring hope to bring to the communities they will serve."
Nice to meet you at Church of the Resurrection in Marion IA on Saturday.
Thank you for your musings on this beatitudes. Just thought I'd share mine take on them which focuses on honor and dignity, value and worth -- concepts that were bound up with the idea of "blessing" in the ancient world. This is what I preached on Sunday Nov 5, 2023 at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids.
Standing on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus declares that a whole host of unlikely people are “blessed.”
People whose spirits are poor, crushed by personal, social, or economic disaster.
People who grieve the loss of family and friends, jobs and security, health and vitality.
People who have been rendered “meek” — humiliated and humbled, shamed and silenced.
People who hunger and thirst of righteousness — relationships of equity and justice.
People who are rejected, harassed and persecuted for seeking fairness, equity and justice.
Let’s be clear — Jesus is NOT saying we are lucky or fortunate to experience these things. Jesus is NOT saying we should be happy in the midst of our suffering. Makarios, the Greek word we translate as blessed is not about luck or happiness. It is all about honor and dignity, value and worth. Jesus proclaims the honor and dignity, the value and worth of people society looks down on, neglects, despises, and actively traumatizes. Jesus revalues those who have been dis-valued. Jesus honors those who have been shamed.
The beatitudes are the most amazing good news — all of us will experience one or more of these conditions during our lifetime. The beatitudes call us to account, to confess that at least sometimes we fail to honor and respect our neighbors. At times we may even be guilty of cursing the people Jesus blesses. Jesus also blesses people who are actively trying to do something about suffering of their neighbors.
Blessed are the merciful who think, speak, and act with kindness and compassion, goodwill and generosity. As James, the brother of Jesus, reminds us “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).
Blessed are the pure in heart whose thoughts and feelings are being cleansed of their adoration of power, money, fame, and other false gods in order to be reformed and realigned with God’s values.
Blessed are the peacemakers who strive for the right relations, equity, and justice necessary for human thriving on all levels — physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Missing, but hinted at and talked all around, in/by/with DBB's Sunday Musing was the very real meaning you cite: That those who are blessed are honored and dignified and valued by God, and worthy of that recognition...that sainthood, if you will.
You said "Jesus also blesses people who are actively trying to do something about suffering of their neighbors."
When Jesus continued his sermon he told us to show all these attributes to others, in order to glorify God:
Mat 5:13-16
(13) You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men.
(14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
(15) Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the grain-measure, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house.
(16) Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
We are to let OUR light shine so that OTHERS may glorify God. They will praise God and come to him because of our actions in loving others which show how we love God.
Do you have a copy of your sermon that you could put for us to read or listen to?
We can be a blessing to others, indeed we must be...
James 2:14-26
(14) My brothers, what profit is it if a man says he has faith and does not have works? Can faith save him?
(15) If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
(16) and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it?
(17) Even so, if it does not have works, faith is dead, being by itself.
(18) But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works.
(19) You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.
(20) But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
(21) Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
(22) Do you see how faith worked with his works, and from the works faith was made complete?
(23) And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."
(24) You see then how a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
(25) And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?
(26) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Your comment brought to mind Teresa of Avila's poem, roughly paraphrased here:: You are Gods hands...feet...eyes upon the earth. Without you there is no doing of good.
Very rough paraphrase of her poem, but you get my drift, I suspect.
Indeed, we are most often the way that God blesses others, in that he expects us to follow his will and live the life of Jesus in our lives.
As I said in another comment on this post:
When Jesus continued his sermon he told us to show all these attributes to others, in order to glorify God:
Mat 5:13-16
(13) You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men.
(14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
(15) Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the grain-measure, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house.
(16) Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
We are to let OUR light shine so that OTHERS may glorify God. They will praise God and come to him because of our actions in loving others which show how we love God.
I was reminded of John Dear's Beatitudes of Peace which describe what we really value - wealth, might, etc. It took me a while, but I finally found a link to his "version". Do take a look. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/beatitudes-peace
The Beatitudes are not a performance formula for spirituality. They are a description of how God’s grace as evidenced through Christ can/will affect the lives of those who suffer from life’s tribulations-- all of us, in some-fashion or another. Hear the Good News! Even in trials, suffering and death there is hope, and comfort. Does that mean we should just accept poverty and injustice? No, it motivates us to do what we can to reduce them, and even if our efforts are futile God still is with us.
Thanks. Martin. Tim’s newsletter is emerging in my mind…🎶 I want to share things I have found helpful in my life. It is hard for me to organize them as most of my experience is in experiential learning and small group interaction. Therefore, my thoughts usually merge in response to questions and conversations. I procrastinate, so step one was to set up the Newsletter as a forum to share my mind when it happens. I am hoping to add to it at least weekly beginning in December…So, I am as curious as you regarding where it will go and the value it can provide.
I too have been planning on writing a substack, but I have been putting my musings down for about 30 years, and the last few years I have tried to put a few of them into a book, which I have finished but was not sure how to present it. Publishe
So I have decided to put it in serial form on my substack, and see how the response is, perhaps refine it a bit and then print it etc.
So as far as suggestions go... start writing, don't stop. Read the Bible, and read every verse that anyone quotes on any subject in the context of what is said in scripture- people are always trying to make scripture fit their ideas rather than the other way around.
And get yourself a tough, honest, biblically sound editor- who can spell and do grammar and punctuation and all that stuff, so you can concentrate on getting stuff written. Oh, and before you start pray about it, no use expressing your thoughts about God without God's help!
Our entire world is set for some very troubled times to shortly come upon it, and the more we promote Biblically based ideas the better it will be.
i was reminded of a drawing i had done when a kid, a drawing of some African children in Obize who were suffering from malnutrition. Look magazine had done a huge article and some of the photographs of these kids were compelling. The title? Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."
I was recently blessed by my husband’s five-day stay in the hospital. Amidst the uncertainty about Lance’s condition that necessitated ambulance transport, I witnessed joy and blessing brought to everyone who walked into his room by the patient himself.
During the more than a half a century I’ve known him, whenever I have had a problem, Lance has always said, “What can I do to help you?” My response has also always been the same. “Just be you.” Being who he is has not only always been enough for me in dealing with whatever life happens to be throwing my way at any given moment, it has brought mountain ranges of joyful peaks offsetting my dark valleys.
From the emergency room bed through to discharge, I saw Lance ease right back into the comforter role he had when he was a hospice chaplain in the 90’s. He most loved that job because of all of those who were mourning he could comfort. When Lance first started that job, I asked him once what the hospice patient was dying from. “It doesn’t matter what they are dying from. People die like they live. My role is to help them and their loved ones come to terms with their lives and their relationships in light of their coming death.”
This is a haiku that I wrote about the way in which I saw the experience of everyone being blessed by Lance’s stay:
Week in hospital
Taught by way of weak body
Strength of hope in soul
I’m also grateful to have been the one who could continue to enjoy the blessing Lance is by taking him back home. Still healing; still blessing.
I LIKE YOUR DESCRIPTIONS OF BLESSINGS AND THE CONNECTING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS A FRESH WAY. IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO RETHINK, EXPERIENCE THE SERMON AS A FRESH WAY TO LIVE IN THE GOSPEL
Blessed are those brought to the end of themselves. When they look to and trust God they will know fullness, supply for their needs, guidance for their path, and true, immeasurable, unshakable, unconditional love. They become God’s children. Children to a Father whose love and provision is immeasurable!
I feel that some here have misunderstood my comment. I find it to be true that often times God will bring one to the end of their strength, their self reliance, the end of themselves alone. That is when either by the touch of the Holy Spirit on that person’s heart or perhaps God brings one of His children alongside that hurting person that the individual then opens their heart and accepts God and His love expressed in the form of Jesus.
Craig I do not feel as you do. How do you tell some one is homeless or a father who has lost his whole family the words you wrote. How do they feel the presence of in such situation. Jesus was a man of action, and we are called to do the same.
I was merely saying that is when we come to the end of ourselves and our strength that often we look to God. I find this process to be a common thing for many Bette. Though the specifics of the process may vary the dynamics hopefully accomplish the same ends. Their are those times when God quietly waits you know.
"When I feed the poor, they call me a Saint. When I ask why we have the poor, they call me a Communist.~~~Dorothy Day. "The presence of the poor is not a call for charity. It is a call to change the social order".~~~Archbishop Oscar Romero (assassinated). I cannot any longer, in good conscience, quote Scripture about poverty, oppression, hierarchy, or peace unless I am, at the same time, doing everything in my power to move the social order toward equality, justice, and peace. And doing it nonviolently with compassion for all who are caught up in our present systems. And doing it while, at the same time, confessing how I have profited and been advantaged by the systems I am being called to change.
While we would all love to be able to help change the world into a better place, it is only the return of Jesus that will stop all the madness that is at the root of it all, and remove Satan, the author of confusion and lies.
If we try to do good we may succeed, but we may also, like Oscar Romero be killed for the truth, which is what Jesus tells us is the greatest blessing: Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward in Heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Mat 5:10-12)
Jesus continues to encourage us to "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Mat 5:16
It is by OUR good works that we help OTHERS to respect and glorify God in praise and thanks. - and thus the truth of God is perpetuated and grows throughout the Earth, as we let our light shine in the darkness of this world.
Yes, Martin. Agreed that we are encouraged to let our light shine in order to glorify God, who is THE LIGHT. And we must do this with all humility and compassion, realizing that what we call OUR light is not ours. It is the light of God shining through us. Gandhi said, "Nothing that you do is important. And it is vital that you do it". I am in the habit of asking what is mine to do, and how shall I do it until Jesus comes again?
I just read CNN article on the rise of Social Gospel (again) in America through the activity of workers unions. I would love to hear Diana’s take, from an historical and current standpoint. For eg, could this movement counteract the harm being done by the religious right in any significant way?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/us/social-gospel-movement-uaw-strike-blake-cec/index.html
HI Diana, please forgive the length of this, but your reflections reminded me that I wrote something awhile back, and so I thought I'd see how it read, some 15 years later!!! Grateful to you and to Richard for being a part of "Claiming the Beatitudes."
From the Intro:
"If we interpret the beatitudes as a set of rules to live by we sever them from their roots in the tradition of the Jewish prophets. Matthew’s community was steeped in Isaiah, and Jesus quotes Isaiah more than any other prophet. Isaiah announced again and again the signs of God’s presence in the world, using language about peace and light and justice and healing and liberation and joy. Each one of the beatitudes echoes Isaiah’s description of the reign of God.
These brief sayings give us a lens through which to see Jesus and the God he proclaimed. Through these words, and through his alternative way in the world, Jesus points to a God who is always doing something new, a God who engages this world with healing mercy, endless compassion, and liberating justice. We see a God who is most concerned about those who have the least. The beatitudes give us not only a way to see God, but a way to see our world, and they give us something concrete to do about what we see, as they call us to participate in God’s kingdom. As St. Augustine said, (and Marcus Borg quotes): “God without us will not; and we without God cannot.”3
The emerging leaders whose stories follow know this; they claim the beatitudes of Jesus not as a description of a future heavenly realm, but as a prescription for vital discipleship now. With them, I believe that the beatitudes were offered to the early church as both encouraging comfort and as a stirring manifesto for a way of life that ran radically counter to the prevailing ethos of the Roman Empire. These words of blessing are as defiant as Mary’s Magnificat and as bold as Jesus’ first sermon at Nazareth. The beatitudes had the power to change lives in the first century, and they hold that same power today, shaping a new generation of leaders and giving them a word of daring hope to bring to the communities they will serve."
Beautiful breakdown of one of the most important parts of the Gospel
Hi Diana,
Nice to meet you at Church of the Resurrection in Marion IA on Saturday.
Thank you for your musings on this beatitudes. Just thought I'd share mine take on them which focuses on honor and dignity, value and worth -- concepts that were bound up with the idea of "blessing" in the ancient world. This is what I preached on Sunday Nov 5, 2023 at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids.
Standing on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus declares that a whole host of unlikely people are “blessed.”
People whose spirits are poor, crushed by personal, social, or economic disaster.
People who grieve the loss of family and friends, jobs and security, health and vitality.
People who have been rendered “meek” — humiliated and humbled, shamed and silenced.
People who hunger and thirst of righteousness — relationships of equity and justice.
People who are rejected, harassed and persecuted for seeking fairness, equity and justice.
Let’s be clear — Jesus is NOT saying we are lucky or fortunate to experience these things. Jesus is NOT saying we should be happy in the midst of our suffering. Makarios, the Greek word we translate as blessed is not about luck or happiness. It is all about honor and dignity, value and worth. Jesus proclaims the honor and dignity, the value and worth of people society looks down on, neglects, despises, and actively traumatizes. Jesus revalues those who have been dis-valued. Jesus honors those who have been shamed.
The beatitudes are the most amazing good news — all of us will experience one or more of these conditions during our lifetime. The beatitudes call us to account, to confess that at least sometimes we fail to honor and respect our neighbors. At times we may even be guilty of cursing the people Jesus blesses. Jesus also blesses people who are actively trying to do something about suffering of their neighbors.
Blessed are the merciful who think, speak, and act with kindness and compassion, goodwill and generosity. As James, the brother of Jesus, reminds us “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).
Blessed are the pure in heart whose thoughts and feelings are being cleansed of their adoration of power, money, fame, and other false gods in order to be reformed and realigned with God’s values.
Blessed are the peacemakers who strive for the right relations, equity, and justice necessary for human thriving on all levels — physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Thank you for sharing your sermon with us.
Missing, but hinted at and talked all around, in/by/with DBB's Sunday Musing was the very real meaning you cite: That those who are blessed are honored and dignified and valued by God, and worthy of that recognition...that sainthood, if you will.
So not a dis on DBB's musing.
You said "Jesus also blesses people who are actively trying to do something about suffering of their neighbors."
When Jesus continued his sermon he told us to show all these attributes to others, in order to glorify God:
Mat 5:13-16
(13) You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men.
(14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
(15) Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the grain-measure, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house.
(16) Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
We are to let OUR light shine so that OTHERS may glorify God. They will praise God and come to him because of our actions in loving others which show how we love God.
Do you have a copy of your sermon that you could put for us to read or listen to?
I LOVED meeting you this past weekend! I was getting ready to send you an email when I saw your comment here!
Great sermon that I would have been happy to hear.
We can be a blessing to others, indeed we must be...
James 2:14-26
(14) My brothers, what profit is it if a man says he has faith and does not have works? Can faith save him?
(15) If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
(16) and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it?
(17) Even so, if it does not have works, faith is dead, being by itself.
(18) But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works.
(19) You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.
(20) But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
(21) Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
(22) Do you see how faith worked with his works, and from the works faith was made complete?
(23) And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."
(24) You see then how a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
(25) And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?
(26) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Your comment brought to mind Teresa of Avila's poem, roughly paraphrased here:: You are Gods hands...feet...eyes upon the earth. Without you there is no doing of good.
Very rough paraphrase of her poem, but you get my drift, I suspect.
Thanks Eileen
Indeed, we are most often the way that God blesses others, in that he expects us to follow his will and live the life of Jesus in our lives.
As I said in another comment on this post:
When Jesus continued his sermon he told us to show all these attributes to others, in order to glorify God:
Mat 5:13-16
(13) You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men.
(14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
(15) Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the grain-measure, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house.
(16) Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
We are to let OUR light shine so that OTHERS may glorify God. They will praise God and come to him because of our actions in loving others which show how we love God.
I was reminded of John Dear's Beatitudes of Peace which describe what we really value - wealth, might, etc. It took me a while, but I finally found a link to his "version". Do take a look. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/beatitudes-peace
The Beatitudes are not a performance formula for spirituality. They are a description of how God’s grace as evidenced through Christ can/will affect the lives of those who suffer from life’s tribulations-- all of us, in some-fashion or another. Hear the Good News! Even in trials, suffering and death there is hope, and comfort. Does that mean we should just accept poverty and injustice? No, it motivates us to do what we can to reduce them, and even if our efforts are futile God still is with us.
Thanks Tim, I think you have summarized the point Jesus was getting across very well.
What is Tim's Newsletter?
Thanks. Martin. Tim’s newsletter is emerging in my mind…🎶 I want to share things I have found helpful in my life. It is hard for me to organize them as most of my experience is in experiential learning and small group interaction. Therefore, my thoughts usually merge in response to questions and conversations. I procrastinate, so step one was to set up the Newsletter as a forum to share my mind when it happens. I am hoping to add to it at least weekly beginning in December…So, I am as curious as you regarding where it will go and the value it can provide.
Any suggestions?
Hi Tim
I too have been planning on writing a substack, but I have been putting my musings down for about 30 years, and the last few years I have tried to put a few of them into a book, which I have finished but was not sure how to present it. Publishe
So I have decided to put it in serial form on my substack, and see how the response is, perhaps refine it a bit and then print it etc.
So as far as suggestions go... start writing, don't stop. Read the Bible, and read every verse that anyone quotes on any subject in the context of what is said in scripture- people are always trying to make scripture fit their ideas rather than the other way around.
And get yourself a tough, honest, biblically sound editor- who can spell and do grammar and punctuation and all that stuff, so you can concentrate on getting stuff written. Oh, and before you start pray about it, no use expressing your thoughts about God without God's help!
Our entire world is set for some very troubled times to shortly come upon it, and the more we promote Biblically based ideas the better it will be.
i was reminded of a drawing i had done when a kid, a drawing of some African children in Obize who were suffering from malnutrition. Look magazine had done a huge article and some of the photographs of these kids were compelling. The title? Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."
I was recently blessed by my husband’s five-day stay in the hospital. Amidst the uncertainty about Lance’s condition that necessitated ambulance transport, I witnessed joy and blessing brought to everyone who walked into his room by the patient himself.
During the more than a half a century I’ve known him, whenever I have had a problem, Lance has always said, “What can I do to help you?” My response has also always been the same. “Just be you.” Being who he is has not only always been enough for me in dealing with whatever life happens to be throwing my way at any given moment, it has brought mountain ranges of joyful peaks offsetting my dark valleys.
From the emergency room bed through to discharge, I saw Lance ease right back into the comforter role he had when he was a hospice chaplain in the 90’s. He most loved that job because of all of those who were mourning he could comfort. When Lance first started that job, I asked him once what the hospice patient was dying from. “It doesn’t matter what they are dying from. People die like they live. My role is to help them and their loved ones come to terms with their lives and their relationships in light of their coming death.”
This is a haiku that I wrote about the way in which I saw the experience of everyone being blessed by Lance’s stay:
Week in hospital
Taught by way of weak body
Strength of hope in soul
I’m also grateful to have been the one who could continue to enjoy the blessing Lance is by taking him back home. Still healing; still blessing.
I see no blessings in my life whatsoever. I'm just a miserable person that no one wants to be around.
Thank you, Diana, for providing me with a perspective of The Beatitudes which I had never considered before.
Brought to mind what I heard this week, a new answer for many young people to ? What do u want to be when u grow up? Influencer....
GRATITUDE AND BLESSINGS GO TOGETHER SO WELL
I LIKE YOUR DESCRIPTIONS OF BLESSINGS AND THE CONNECTING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS A FRESH WAY. IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO RETHINK, EXPERIENCE THE SERMON AS A FRESH WAY TO LIVE IN THE GOSPEL
Blessed are those brought to the end of themselves. When they look to and trust God they will know fullness, supply for their needs, guidance for their path, and true, immeasurable, unshakable, unconditional love. They become God’s children. Children to a Father whose love and provision is immeasurable!
I feel that some here have misunderstood my comment. I find it to be true that often times God will bring one to the end of their strength, their self reliance, the end of themselves alone. That is when either by the touch of the Holy Spirit on that person’s heart or perhaps God brings one of His children alongside that hurting person that the individual then opens their heart and accepts God and His love expressed in the form of Jesus.
Craig I do not feel as you do. How do you tell some one is homeless or a father who has lost his whole family the words you wrote. How do they feel the presence of in such situation. Jesus was a man of action, and we are called to do the same.
I was merely saying that is when we come to the end of ourselves and our strength that often we look to God. I find this process to be a common thing for many Bette. Though the specifics of the process may vary the dynamics hopefully accomplish the same ends. Their are those times when God quietly waits you know.
"When I feed the poor, they call me a Saint. When I ask why we have the poor, they call me a Communist.~~~Dorothy Day. "The presence of the poor is not a call for charity. It is a call to change the social order".~~~Archbishop Oscar Romero (assassinated). I cannot any longer, in good conscience, quote Scripture about poverty, oppression, hierarchy, or peace unless I am, at the same time, doing everything in my power to move the social order toward equality, justice, and peace. And doing it nonviolently with compassion for all who are caught up in our present systems. And doing it while, at the same time, confessing how I have profited and been advantaged by the systems I am being called to change.
Thanks Marilyn
While we would all love to be able to help change the world into a better place, it is only the return of Jesus that will stop all the madness that is at the root of it all, and remove Satan, the author of confusion and lies.
If we try to do good we may succeed, but we may also, like Oscar Romero be killed for the truth, which is what Jesus tells us is the greatest blessing: Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward in Heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Mat 5:10-12)
Jesus continues to encourage us to "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Mat 5:16
It is by OUR good works that we help OTHERS to respect and glorify God in praise and thanks. - and thus the truth of God is perpetuated and grows throughout the Earth, as we let our light shine in the darkness of this world.
Yes, Martin. Agreed that we are encouraged to let our light shine in order to glorify God, who is THE LIGHT. And we must do this with all humility and compassion, realizing that what we call OUR light is not ours. It is the light of God shining through us. Gandhi said, "Nothing that you do is important. And it is vital that you do it". I am in the habit of asking what is mine to do, and how shall I do it until Jesus comes again?
Amen to Oscar Romero.. It is no blessing in poverty or what is happening in Gaza now.